Is Contraceptive Debate GOP’s New ‘Terry Schiavo Moment’?

[babylonsister]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/02/17/is-contraceptive-debate-gop-s-new-terry-schiavo-moment.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thedailybeast%2Fpolitics+%28The+Daily+Beast+-+Politics%29

Is Contraceptive Debate GOP’s New ‘Terry Schiavo Moment’?
Michelle Goldberg
Feb 17, 2012 4:45 AM EST

The GOP just can’t quit when it comes to women’s reproductive rights. But now polls are showing that the all-out assault may backfire come November.


Some conservatives, watching their party consumed by a nationwide debate over birth control, have started to suspect a liberal plot.

“They desperately want people’s attention off of the economy and Obamacare,” said Rush Limbaugh. “And the culture war, they think they can go back to their archive pages and bring that issue back.” On the Legal Insurrection blog, William Jacobson, an associate professor of law at Cornell, recalled George Stephanopoulos’s question about contraception at the January 7 Republican debate, which many on the right considered absurd. “Well what do you know, about a month later the Obama administration proposes administrative rules … which would require free contraception be provided even by religious institutions which oppose contraception on religious grounds,” he writes. “It’s almost as if Stephanopoulos got the memo first. Unless, of course, you believe in coincidences.”

If only Democrats were so clever. Yet even though at least a few right-wingers seem to recognize the dangers in a drawn-out battle over family planning, the GOP just can’t stop itself. And so, increasingly, the question of women’s access to birth control, one largely considered settled for the past few decades, has now moved to the center of our political debate. Conspiracy-minded conservatives are wrong that Obama orchestrated this. But they’re right that it will likely help him.

On Thursday, Democracy Corps, a Democratic polling firm, released a memo attributing improvements in Obama’s approval rating largely to unmarried women, and suggesting that controversies over birth-control coverage are buoying him (PDF). “We may yet look back on this debate and wonder whether this was a Terry Schiavo moment,” it says. “The Obama position finds a two-thirds majority among suburban voters and a 61 percent majority among single women. These results loom large when voters prefer Democrats over Republicans by 52 to 26 percent on women’s issues, including a 36-point margin among senior women and a 47-point margin among unmarried women.”

snip//

These intertwined attacks on reproductive rights represent a dangerous and depressing new pinnacle in conservative reaction, with ominous consequences for women’s health. But they also represent a real opportunity for politicians who will fight back. Obama didn’t plan any of it. But things could hardly be working out better for him if he had.

[bklyncowgirl]

1. When your enemy is shooting himself in the foot--get out of his way and let him do it!

I find this amazing in this day and age.

[glowing]

2. How can they continue to make the statement that employers must provide free

birth control? The last time I checked, people had to pay for their insurance. Why shouldn't basic health care needs be covered by insurance plans when family planning is one of the most fundamental needs for women? And why shouldn't birth control be a regular item that can be covered for a cheaper co-pay rate? When I was taking birth control, it was not considered a generic and the co-pay was still $20.00 per month. Without insurance, the type first type I was taking was $55.00 and the second kind that worked better for my body (less mood swings and lighter flows with on the dot time and date cycle starts) was $65.00.

In this day in age, birth control ought to be nearly free. You would think insurance companies who don't want to pay for the more expensive live birth of a child and an extra "child" head on the family plan, would offer special clinic dates and special free Drs. all over America every year so they could keep their costs of child birth and extra children on the family plan down. A cesarian birth will cost them a ton more money, and these days, with Drs malpractice insurance so high, they don't play around with any extra risks... they will call for a cesarian much faster if the birth doesn't progress in a way they like.

I would think the insurance co's would be calling their wealthy Republican politicians and tell them to back off of this debate... Its bad enough they've gotten away with charging so much as a non-generic co-pay plan and calling Ob-Gyn Drs a "specialist" and making that co-pay cost more for the yearly exam or whenever a pregnant woman is required to go in for check-ups. These 2 items have irked the ever living shit out of me for a long time. Birth control has been around for a long time; there's no way the formulas are not "generic" enough by now AND 1/2 of the population is using a certain Dr for yearly check-ups and I suppose because old white guys run the govt, and they don't use a Gyno, they have the audacity to still call these types of Drs "specialists" like they are cardiologists or something that only people with heart issues need to utilize... Sad that women are still treated like second class citizens. I think these Republicans have Mommy issues or something; men who respect women usually think about their mother's and sister's as an empathetic pull on logic and reason when dealing with issues they can't understand because they are men.

[MineralMan]

3. I think it's much bigger than Schiavo.

Much bigger.

[spanone]

4. i hope so. they looked like fools then.